A founder stuck at $10 million for four years kept blaming his team and strategy. The real problem: he was still operating like a $5 million business, refusing to hire people smarter than himself, and wouldn't let go of control. Scaling requires asking who you need to become, not just fixing the business.
I had this founder, he was a super bright guy, but he was stuck at $10 million for almost like 4 years. And he kept asking me, what do I need to change? Do I need to change the team, the strategy, the structure?
And I was like, no. I just wanna say, anybody who knows anything knows that Layla is the actual brains behind the Hormozy empire. Alex would admit that. You need to change.
You are still operating like you have a $5 million business in every decision. You won't hire leaders who are smarter than you. You wanna scale, but you refuse to let go. So you don't actually want it, dude. And I remember he looked at me and he was like, Okay, so who do I need to become? And that is the question that most founders never ask. They are so busy trying to scale the business, trying to fix the business, trying to fix the people, fix, fix, fix, fix, that they don't look at the hardest thing, which is to look at themselves. They don't ask the question that actually matters, which is, who do I need to be to grow a million dollar, $10 million, $30 million, $50 million, $100 million, billion dollar company?
Yeah, nailed it. I mean, most businesses have a people problem, but it's not what they think. The problem isn't with the people they've hired. The problem is more or less with the person they look at in the mirror every single morning. Everything that made you great from $0 to $2 million, the hustle, the ability to learn on the job, the move fast and break things energy, that's exactly what's gonna prevent you from making the leap from $2 million to $20 million in revenue. And we can talk all day long about implementing systems, about hiring great people, about creating frameworks for decision-making. At the end of the day, if you're not prepared to make the mental shift from going from the most valuable player on the field, getting all the praise and clapping, to being the coach on the sidelines, and then finally the owner up in your luxury box enjoying the show while still getting paid, if you're not willing to make that shift, then you're never going to make the 7 to 8 figure leap, and you certainly will never make it to 9 figures. Mm-hmm.
